


St Nicholas Day

by Small_Hobbit



Series: Never A Dull Moment [6]
Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-06
Updated: 2017-12-06
Packaged: 2019-02-11 09:27:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 468
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12932370
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Small_Hobbit/pseuds/Small_Hobbit
Summary: DI Stanley Hopkins is working away, so Tilly, his cat is staying at 221B.





	St Nicholas Day

“Right, I’m going to the shops,” John Watson said.

He put one foot into his trainer and muttered, “What on earth?”

He took his foot out again.  “Great!  A dead mouse.”

“What?” Sherlock exclaimed.  “Well, don’t tell Mrs H, she’ll be most upset.”

“I can’t say I was greatly amused either,” John replied.  “When did you say Stanley was due back from Amsterdam?”

“He sent me a text.  He’ll be back tonight.”  Sherlock rubbed the head of the little cat, who had appeared, apparently out of nowhere, and was watching with interest the disposal of the mouse corpse.  “You’ll be please to see Stanley, won’t you?”  Sherlock said to the cat.

“That cat’s not the only one who’ll be pleased to see him” John muttered, then added, “Yuk!  I’m going to change my socks.”

“What’s the problem?  You were an army doctor.”

“I may have seen active service, but it doesn’t mean I want mouse guts stuck to my sock.”

John returned a few minutes later and Tilly pounced on his foot.  John took another step and Tilly pounced on the other foot and tried to bite his toe.

“What on earth are you doing, you stupid cat?” John grumbled.

“Ah, that would be my experiment,” Sherlock said.  “I was seeing how many layers of cloth it took before a cat could no longer detect the smell of catnip.”

“Tell me you washed my socks after you used them for your experiment.  No, of course you didn’t.”

John took off his socks and rolled them into a ball, throwing them at Tilly, who pounced happily and started to chase them round the room.

After a further five minutes, John returned, wearing yet another pair of clean socks.  He went into the kitchen.  “Get down,” he shouted, spotting Tilly walking along the kitchen surface.  “Bad cat!”

Tilly carefully walked past Sherlock’s mug of cold tea, before kicking it with her back paw as she jumped down.  John watched as the cold tea poured into his trainers.

Sherlock picked up the little cat and stroked her.  “Poor Tilly.  Did the nasty man shout at you and startle you?”

***

Stanley arrived that evening.  Tilly trotted over to greet him and Stanley picked her up.  He held his cat with one hand, whilst the other went round Sherlock’s back as he pulled him in for a kiss.

When they broke away Stanley handed John a small bag.  “It’s St Nicholas’ Day today and Dutch tradition has it good children find their shoes filled with treats.  You may like to put the enclosed in your shoe as a thank you from me for looking after Tilly.”

John opened the bag and smiled appreciatively at the bottle inside.  “If it’s all the same with you,” he said, “This is going nowhere near my shoes.”

 


End file.
